


Dog Days

by vespian



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen, M/M, Pet Adoption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8626681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vespian/pseuds/vespian
Summary: A short story about the two additional members of the new Shimada household.





	

_"Hey, Genji, your brother's a cat person, right?"_

_"What? What makes you think that?"_

_"Well, he's so cold and distant, he's just like a cat, so they'd probably get along just fine!"_

_"That's completely wrong. Hanzo is a dog person. He likes their loving nature and playfulness--and loyalty, and how dogs are always glad to see you when they come home!"_

_"Oh! I wouldn't have thought that. What about you, Genji?"_

_"Me? I like cats!"_

 

* * *

In the thirty years since the Omnic Crisis, there was no shortage of quiet, secluded neighborhoods to be found. Their discussions and evaluations had taken some time, but eventually they had found a house surrounded by green woods, within a single train ride's to the ocean. It was small and cozy, nothing like the sprawling family home both of them had grown up in, but neither of them had wanted it to be. One bedroom, a bathroom with two sinks and a tub large enough to hold two people, and a large kitchen connected with a living room. They'd brought their scant belongings to the place, Zenyatta helping to move the large woodblock painting that had been made to commemorate both brother's transition into adulthood so many years ago. The scowling archer and the glaring swordsman now graced a wall in their living area. Both their blades had been brought in from Hanamura and Nepal, nearly quarter of the globe's distance between the two finally closed so the two swords could finally be displayed side by side once more. Genji's smuggled old photograph sat on a dresser in their bedroom, the only one of its kind. For the rest of the home there had been a number of compromises made, especially with technology. Genji, coming from both Overwatch and an omnic run compound, was used to modern and expiremental tech in his daily life, enjoyed the convenience of voice recognition and floating interfaces for everything from the lights to the appliances. Hanzo, though not entirely as much of a Luddite as Genji sometimes claimed he was, preferred analogue where he could get it. He had been on the run and off the grid for so long, his distrust of anything that transmitted and received signals had been embedded into his person, no matter how much Genji tugged or prodded at it. In the end, most of the items in their home were either old fashioned, or disconnected models. Though Genji missed being able to run a hot bath and have it ready the moment they returned home just by sending a signal through his visor, he was grateful Hanzo agreed to finally carry a communicator with him when he left the house.

He could accept a refrigerator that didn't message him when they were running low on eggs if it meant he could reach Hanzo in an emergency.

Ebi was a surprise for both of them, though.

While traveling through the city closest to the neighborhood, two of them had happened upon one of the city's animal shelter adoption drives. Normally they would have passed it by, but Genji had talked Hanzo into going and seeing the animals there, suggesting it would be something they could both enjoy. They had walked around, petted and played with a few of the dogs, but the small Corgi had caught their attention.  
Ebi was about a year old with a handsome face, ginger fur with a white belly, brown eyes and stubby little legs. He stood out immediately, smiling and wriggling in his holding kennel the minute he saw Hanzo. He was allowed out on a leash by the handlers only to rush over to wind circles and loops of leash around the two brothers's legs and hop up to put his front paws on Hanzo's metal knees to beg for attention. Genji had dropped into a crouch and beckoned the cheery creature over and the dog had all but thrown himself into his lap. Genji managed to catch the smile on Hanzo before his brother realized he was looking his way and quickly turned his head away and fought to straighten his face.

Adopting a dog seemed almost foreign to consider. Neither of them had belonged to a home, an actual place of their own, in years. They had only just moved in to their selected neighborhood and had only just finished unpacking the scant few personal effects shared between them. But they had a house now. They had room for a dog, and no one to tell them they couldn't have one.  
In the end, it had been Hanzo who'd looked to Genji with one of those glimmering, rare hopeful looks on his face and proposed it. Genji, in his typical impulse, had agreed without a second thought.  
On the other hand, it'd been Genji who'd named Ebi, the name spoken with affection (and no small amount of teasing) for the little trotting creature that wandered from room to room and galloped around the yard when either of the brothers took him outside. Ebi was full of energy and happily dragged a near full bodied cyborg behind him on walks and loved to retrieve any item Hanzo threw across the room. Or any item Hanzo left at dog level. More than once he'd had to pry a glowing blue arrow out of the dog's tiny jaws after mistakenly leaving it on a table. Between the patter and clicking of paws across the floor and the soft sound of a dog sleeping on the chair nearby, it was incredible how much a dog could make a house feel like a home.

* * *

 

Genji had been gone for most of that afternoon.  
The two of them weren't always at home together. Genji had a number of errands to run at times, whether for the remnants of Overwatch or a favor for his master, often picking up food or toiletries while he was out. Hanzo sometimes... needed time to himself, when he was feeling particularly overwhelmed. As long as he took the communicator, Genji had slowly come to stop worrying about the days spent away, and he and Ebi always welcomed Hanzo when he returned home.  
That day Genji was simply out getting groceries from the nearby city while Hanzo did his best to make dinner from what they had left in the house. Most of the time, Genji made food for them, a skill he'd developed from a few years living as the only human with a functioning stomach in an omnic commune. But since living together, Hanzo had tried his best to pick up some of it as well. ("We can not live on fast food and ordering out the rest of our lives, Hanzo!" Genji had told him, chiding him for once.) It was nothing compared to how it had been made in the old Shimada household, instant mixes were never as good as the real thing, but the smell of the simmering oden on the stove was pleasant enough. Ebi was resting on his belly in his usual the corner of the kitchen, a little place they had eventually set aside for him with a small rug, tucked safely out of the way of any feet moving from the counter to the stove or to the refrigerator. 

Their front door's lock clicked and Ebi's head shot straight up. A second passed before the door opened fully and there was the scratching of little nails on the wooden floors and a flurry of loud barking as the dog scampered off to greet Genji.  
"Hanzo!" Genji called out to him from the entryway, his typical cloth bags of groceries noticably absent from his person. "I'm home--ah, that smells really good."

"You're back early," Hanzo observed, not looking up from the pot he was tending.

"Yes... about that." His brother began, sounding unusually sheepish, making his way to the kitchen even with Ebi prancing in circles amid occasional happy barks, wagging his tail so hard most of his body was wagging with it. "Please don't be angry." There were soft noises coming from somewhere in the house, something that sounded like squeaking.

Hanzo stopped short, placing the lid back on the pot with a quiet thunk. "I don't like when you say things like that. It makes me feel certain you are about to do something that will make me angry." He quipped, dryly, turning around to face him.

"Well... perhaps." There was something in Genji's cupped hands, a wad of fur that seemed to uncurl into waving paws, a little striped tail and an impossibly large set of eyes. The source of the squeaking became apparent as the tiny white and black kitten opened its little mouth and mewled, setting off a stream of surprised barks from Ebi. Genji couldn't help but break into a grin at the look of utter disbelief on his brother's face.

The expression gradually, slowly turned back into Hanzo's typical sour 'I-can't-believe-you-just-did-that' look Genji was rather fond of. "Where did you find that?"

"Side of the road," He explained. The kitten was attempting to climb up Genji's mechanical wrist, her little claws catching in the spaces between his softer artificial muscle and his armor, drawing a soft hiss of pain from him. He brought the kitten back up against his chest, and the fussy little thing settled a little, resting her back against the warm armored plates. 

The 'you-can't-be-serious' look intensified. "Genji, how do you know that's not someone else's cat?"

At that, he frowned a little, his hands cupping a little more protectively around the kitten. "Because she was left in a box at the side of a road."

A look of understanding flickered on Hanzo's face, his eyes softening as his frown eased. He huffed out, glancing away from Genji and the thing in his arms that was purring loudly against his chest. "Leaving unwanted kittens in a box in this day and age. Who does such things." He scoffed, shaking his head.

"Can we... you know..."

Hanzo's first reflex was to answer with 'absolutely not', but the words never left him. Genji had already brought the kitten home. What else could they do, take it off to the animal shelter for an uncertain fate? He already knew how that would make Genji feel. He raised his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "What about Ebi? What if he eats it?"

"Ebi?" Genji glanced down at the Corgi. "Ebi wouldn't hurt a fly, would you, Ebi?"

The dog answered with another high pitched bark, making the kitten puff up in fear, leaving Genji to cradle it more against his chest. "I'm sure it'll be fine," He added. "Please, brother? Please?"

"Fine." Hanzo relented, letting his hand fall back to his side. "Fine. Very well."

Genji laughed in joy, coming over to Hanzo to throw one arm around his shoulders, pulling them into a light hug with a squirming kitten in between them. Hanzo couldn't help but sigh, shake his head, and hug him back.

"So where are the groceries?"

"The what?" Genji tilted his head as his brother broke from the embrace. Then it hit him. "The groc--oh."

* * *

 

"So what do you want to name her?"

"Me? You found her, Genji."

"I named Ebi. It is only fair."

"You're telling me you do not have a name for her in mind?"

"None at all. I wanted you to name her."

Hanzo thought it over, staring down at the small kitten scarfing down the food they had set out for her after an unfortunately necessary second trip out to buy groceries. "...Momo."

"Momo? But everyone names their cat Momo."

He tipped his shoulders in a shallow shrug. "It's the first thing that came to mind."

"Momo." Genji repeated, running a single fingertip down the kitten's spine as she continued to eat, her loud purrs interrupted amid chewing and swallowing. "It suits her, I think."

* * *

 

Momo was a little troublemaker from the start. Once she had gotten over her initial fear of the new and strange sensations of the house, she was sneaking about and climbing anything she could. The first time Hanzo had returned home after an afternoon out, he'd returned to discover the kitten on the top of a shelf with Ebi barking at her in apparent distress. In a complete reversal of their concerns, the kitten tormented the poor dog. She frequently snuck up and pounced on him in play which Ebi seemed to interpret as a vicious attack, running through the house to find Hanzo, crying all the while.  
She didn't trust Hanzo at first, shying away when he entered the room and dodging his hands when he tried to pick her up. It was only when he found her one day, batting away at the feathers of the arrows in his quiver that she allowed him to play with her. It brought a smile to Genji's face, seeing him wave the end of the arrow from one side of the floor to another, Momo chasing and rolling at it in the wild agility of a kitten on the hunt.  
After that, she became rather fond of him, perhaps because his clothing was much easier to grab hold of than Genji's armor was when it was time for food. As soon as he opened a can of cat food or tuna, he'd be greeted by loud, excited mewing and four sets of needle like claws puncturing through his clothing to scale him in order to reach the countertop.

She followed Genji like a black and white spotted shadow when he was home, drawn to him and his body which generated a comforting warmth for her. He'd come home to the sight of his brother napping on the couch, and spotted the sleeping figure of the kitten curled up in a ball over the glowing plate above his heart, her fur dyed tones of green by the light underneath her. 

* * *

 

"Okay, I am starting the conference call." Genji announced, setting up the camera and projector in front of the woodblock painting as he had every time since the regular Overwatch check-ins had started nearly a year ago.

From across the room, Hanzo gestured a wordless affirmative. He had no intention of being part of such things but also no desire to disrupt them either.

The camera turned on, scanning Genji over in a flash of blue and confirming his identity. The projector then burst into glowing light, spreading out into a large screen, divided into grids with icons indicating the other members of the conference call, except Athena who was hosting the call, her presence indicated by a waveform line that rippled with her synthesized voice. One by one, the icons disappeared and were replaced by camera feeds--save for the one indicated by a cowboy hat. Genji's feed, indicated by an icon of his mask, was the last to turn on.

"Hello to everyone," Winston began, as usual, adjusting his glasses as he typed something onto the keyboard below him. He was answered with the usual echoing chorus of hi's and hello's from the other members of the call. "This is the eleventh monthly check-in. As you may have noticed, one Jesse McCree is absent today. He contacted me earlier today to tell me he would be unable to make this month's check-in and to tell you all--" The gorilla cleared his throat, preparing his best imitation of the man's burly voice "'Howdy', on his behalf." It was not a good imitation. "Granted, we plan these things weeks in advance, but at least he contacted me somewhat ahead of time, I suppose."

"That's suspicious if you ask me." 76 immediately growled out. Even in a casual setting, with Reinhardt out of his armor and everyone else in similar plainclothes, he was still wearing his full mask and what Genji recognized even from the neck up as his familiar numbered jacket. "What else would he be doing at a time like this, huh? Who's he meeting?"

Ana, apparently used to this sort of talk from him by now, simply rolled her eye, "Come now, that doesn't even make sense. If he was being suspicious, wouldn't he be absolutely sure to listen in on our monthly exchange of valuable information?"

"You doing alright, Doctor?" Lena pipped up over the resulting din of 76's angry ramblings and Ana and Reinhardt's answering ribbing at his expense. "You're not looking too golden and glowing today, 'm afraid."

Angela certainly looked worse for the wear, bags under her eyes that even her own advanced medical technology couldn't get at. "Oh. No, no, I am quite alright, Lena. Just long nights lately, I'm afraid. But thank you for your concern."

Though it was as chaotic as an actual room full of people, part of Genji enjoyed these check-ins. It was nice hearing the voices of people he'd spent years with, knowing they were alright and doing well... for the most part.

He startled a little when a sudden weight was on his back, slowly clawing up to his shoulders, one of Momo's favorite roosts because of the hot air regularly escaping his shoulder vents.

"Oi," Lena's face immediately lit up when the tiny kitten crawled onto the screen. "What've you got there, Genji, a little visitor?" 

The other chatter on the video feed was abruptly drowned out with a stream of cooing and aw-ing, even from Winston. 76, of course, became rather silent, his half covered brow creasing in an obvious frown. 

"Ah, yes, I suppose I should introduce you all. This is--" He started, grabbing a hold of the kitten in one hand, until he realized there was something missing. "Hold on just a second, I will return shortly." He stepped out of the camera's line of sight. "Hanzo--" He called out, walking across the living room.

"Are he and Hanzo living together now?" Tracer asked, sounding curious.

"Yes, I believe he mentioned as much during the last check in," Ana recalled, lifting a small cup of tea into frame.

"Verdammt, Ana, that looks like it would be so lovely right about now."

"Well put on a pot yourself, dear, I am certain it would do you good."

"He didn't mention where it was they moved in," 76 interrupted. "Smart kid."

"Wow, they really are like Mario and Luigi." The conference abruptly went silent at Winston's offhand observation. He flustered, adjusting his glasses and glancing away from the camera. "Well, you know... Mario and Luigi. They live together in some of the games."

Before Winston could continue to awkwardly explain himself or Angela could begin yet another lecture at 76 on how Genji was thirty five years old and most certainly not a kid anymore, Genji abruptly sat back down in front of the camera, a kitten in one hand and a squirming little dog in the other. The exclamations of delight summarily began anew.

"My my!" Reinhardt bellowed at the sight of the Corgi, "Look at that handsome little face!"

"Oh, he is quite handsome. They are both handsome," Ana concurred, absolutely grinning from ear to ear.

"This here is Ebi," Genji crooked up one arm higher, holding him up a little more for the camera feed. "And this," He held the kitten back up to his shoulder, where she quickly climbed on, "Is Momo."

"That's so sweet, Genji." Lena stood in towards the camera to get a closer look. She held up a hand, waving at the two animals. "Hello Ebi, hello Momo! Momo is so cute I cannot even believe it.. How old is she, do you think? She can't be very old at all, she still has her little kitten belly..."

It continued for quite a while, the other members asking questions and Genji enthusiastically answering. Across the room Hanzo watched the conversation and smiled.

Eventually 76 could take it no longer. "We have more important things to talk about right now than cute animals. You all know that right?" A long silence filled the video feed as everyone abruptly stopped talking. Ebi managed to wriggle out of Genji's hold, the sound of his footfalls echoing on the audio feed as he trotted back across the living room to return to Hanzo's side.

Winston cleared his throat again. "Uh, right. Athena, the items we had for the check in today, if you wouldn't mind sending over the files to everyone..."

 

* * *

Things were becoming a little crowded at times in their cozy little home, but it was nice.

Between walking and training Ebi in all manner of tricks and playing with Momo, Hanzo found himself leaving the house less. There were times he still needed his space, but taking care of both the creatures that had taken up residence in their home grounded him a little, like nothing had in a very long time. If Genji could tell, he said nothing about it, but there was an unspoken appreciation he could feel from him whenever his brother watched Hanzo with the animals in their care. 

At night, Momo curled up in the crux of Genji's neck and purred as Ebi slept soundly at Hanzo's feet.


End file.
